This Tesla-Powered Kit Car with Chevy Volt Batteries Is a Modern Hot Rod

The dawn of the mass-produced electric car is knocking on our door. In the very near future, battery-powered vehicles will swarm our roads by hundreds of thousands. While the demise of the internal combustion engine may be imminent, the culture of hot-rodding is far from dead. The guys over at Tapp Auto have taken the first steps into mixing electric car parts and built a legitimate electrified hot rod.

The chassis, a Factory-Five kit car called the 818, is built to accept an engine from a mid-2000s WRX. Many people, however, have modified the engine bay to fit everything from an LS1 to a turbo VR6. Tapp Auto took a different approach, and dropped in the motor from a Tesla Model S to power the rear wheels. Supplying energy to that motor are two Chevy Volt batteries, mounted in the middle of the car. Mashing together parts from different manufacturers and doing a burnout in the finished product—this is hot-rodding at its finest.

Tapp Auto had to create its own software to get all of the components to work nicely together, but the result of all that complex computing is over 400 horsepower and an 11.5-second quarter mile. At only 2500 pounds, it should be a hoot to throw around corners too.

Youtuber Eurodyne Chris threw together a video about the car, and all of the initial testing it's done. Dyno runs, quarter-mile drags, and of course, a huge smokey burnout.